Link Six (completed)

Chapter 23 - Training

Too soon, in the opinion of the children, they were walking out of the woods and back on the paths in between the cabins and the archery range.

"Well, that was eventful, guys," Eddie says. "Still, I hope you guys all sign up for next weekend."

The kids exchange a few looks amongst themselves.

"You should expect to see us every weekend," Leeanna says, speaking for all of them.

Eddie grins. "I'm looking forward to it. I'll walk you guys back to the cabins so you can drop all your stuff off, and lunch is about to be announced, so after we can just head straight to the mess hall."

The kids nod. They walk down the dirt path until the reach the cabins, drop their stuff off, and then reach the mess hall porch just as lunch is called over the loud speaker.

"So, next weekend, huh?" Colton says, looking at the others.

"I guess we can start training then," Gerald says. "Since we didn't really get a chance today."

"That's the game plan," Emma says.

"Well, then, see you all next weekend," Rhea said.

They step into the mess hall as the crowd of campers approaches, and then go their separate ways.

During the camping trip, they had gotten accustomed to the few people, but back in the crowd, all the children felt a bit discombobulated, and it showed. They were a bit more happy than usual to get outside at the end of lunch.

"Oh, Rhea!" someone calls as Rhea walks with the crowd away from the mess hall. She looks over her shoulder and sees Kim jogging up behind her.

"Hey, Kim," Rhea greets her.

"I forgot to ask," Kim says, stepping next to Rhea. "How was the camping trip?"

"It wasn't so bad," Rhea assures her. "Just next time, I'll make sure to bring food to eat. Dinner was...interesting"

Kim laughs. "Well, I don't want to say I told you so, but... I told you so."

Rhea laughs, also. "What are you doing this afternoon?" she wanted to know.

"I dunno, I'll probably head to archery. You?"

"Um... Mind if I tag along with you?"

"Of course not! Come on," Kim grins. Rhea grins back and the break away from the crowd and jog ahead to archery range.

As the time approached for the second camping trip, each kid had become more used to camp life, crowds and the like. Not saying that the children still didn't have some difficulty, but it was quite a bit easier for them to deal, especially for Emma, Leeanna and Howie, who went to online school.

This time, knowing that Eddie might have something weird planned for lunch and dinner, Emma and Gerald made sure to bring an ample amount of snacks to sustain themselves and the others. They all arrived at the post at the same time, this time Eddie wasn't late, and there was only a slight dispute between Gerald and Howie. They set out for the woods with mixed feelings. Yet, they anxiously awaited the first time Eddie left them to themselves. When he finally did, they put their bags down, and look at each other, wondering exactly what they were supposed to do.

"So..." Rhea says. "How are we supposed to do this?"

"I think we should all just use our abilities, out in the open, and we could give each other advice on using them better," Gerald suggest.

"What do you mean by 'using them better,'" Emma wants to know. "We can't tell each other how to use their abilities, because one, we don't know how to use them, and two, we don't know what their using them for."